04.06.1998

London left routed

Simon Harvey of the SLP

Last Saturday, May 30, around 35-40 delegates and observers attended the London Regional Conference of the Socialist Labour Party.

The annual meeting was squeezed into an obviously inadequate hour and a half. The conference agenda included the regional secretary’s report and discussion, the outgoing London committee’s proposals for the coming year and election of officers for the London executive. The atmosphere was very different from the 80-strong London pre-general election meeting at which Scargill was opposed by speakers in favour of party democracy and against the witch hunt.

What was patently clear from the conference was that the left has been as good as purged from the SLP - in London as well as in the party as a whole. Only one constituency party delegation, Hackney and Stoke Newington, put forward any opposition to the Fisc-Scargillite alliance which dominates the party in London. Geoff Palmer and Peter Morton, both of Hackney and Stoke Newington, challenged the sitting regional president, Brian Heron, and vice-president, Roshan Dadoo. Both Fiscite incumbents were comfortably re-elected. Geoff Palmer distributed a ‘vote Marxist’ leaflet in support of his candidature. The platform of the former Marxist Bulletin supporter emphasised internationalism, no support for the Labour Party, electoral alliances with other socialists groups, and inner-party democracy.

Republican candidate Peter Morton distributed a leaflet supporting his candidature for vice-president, which stressed the need for democracy in the party, a programme of work to draw in new members and expressed a desire for the “SLP [to] develop as the republican party of the working class”. He emphasised that “a party of the working class must have answers to the political problems of capitalist society, not just the economic problems”. Comrade Morton encouraged distribution of the NEC’s discussion paper on a republican constitution as a basis for the political development of the London party.

There were no contests for the other positions, as comrades either withdrew their nominations or candidates opted for unwieldy job-share arrangements. Secretary/treasurer is Bernard Gibbon (Fisc), who was elected unopposed. London organisers are: Helen Drummond, Ann Goss, Brian Money and Bruce Ramsay. Steve Cowan from Ealing Southall withdrew, owing to his acceptance of a trade union post. Comrade Cowan suggested that another Ealing member be nominated in his stead, but comrade Heron ruled from the chair that no further nominations could be accepted. However, he stated that the London committee could coopt an Ealing comrade, but this privilege could not be extended to the leftwing Hackney/Stoke Newington CSLP as they had not put forward a candidate for organiser before nominations closed.

The trade union organisers are John Mulrenan and Terry Dunn, while the local government post is job-shared between Jenny Burnett and former councillor Tony Link. Amanda Rose, who is close to Stalinite NEC member Harpal Brar, is editor of the London bulletin. Political education is again a job-share arrangement between Pat Walsh and Heather Downs. Publicity goes to Angela Ruddock, despite her failure to attend the conference.

George Newton, of the undemocratically reconstituted Vauxhall CSLP, is finance officer. Tony Goss ally Guy Smallman, and Harpal Brar’s son, Ranjit Brar (leading light and virtually the sole member of the Stalinite Red Youth) share the youth officer post. Jacky Rafferty, who has yet to attend any SLP event, was returned as campaigns officer. And everyone’s favourite thug, Tony Goss, is election agent.

The discussion around the secretary’s report was extremely wide-ranging, but one point of contention concerned next year’s European election. Terry Dunn claimed that, on average, the SLP received 11.9% of the vote in the London local elections. This produced a frisson of excitement, given the shift to a form of proportional representation, where 10% support would be enough to secure the SLP a London MEP. However, if Arthur Scargill was to be believed, in the lead-up to the 1997 general election the SLP was averaging around 13% in by-elections, yet we gained less than two percent overall where we stood on May 1.

Assuming a 30% turnout for the European elections, 10% support would require around 150,000 SLP votes in London, twice the 75,000 we received nationally in the general election. In view of this the forging of an electoral alliance for a common list of socialist candidates is essential. Peter Pierce of Lewisham referred to the “golden opportunity” the new system presented and stated that a split vote would guarantee that the 10% threshold was not reached by any one left group across London as a whole.

Fiscite witch hunter Carolyn Sikorski rejected electoral cooperation outright and a comrade from Ealing suggested the only alliances needed were with the community, not with “small groups with no community links”.

Cool on the SLP?

Adrian Greenman was the only supporter of Roy Bull’s homophobic Economic and Philosophic Science Review in attendance. He distributed a leaflet reproduced in the typically amateurish EPSR format in the name of Tooting CSLP. It was highly critical of the SLP’s direction, slamming “major weaknesses” in SLP policies, including “an indifferent and unsure” boycott line around the London referendum.

The EPSR/Tooting leaflet criticised the May 7 London election campaign. It stated that the building of local connections without “warning about the imminent capitalist slump ... is to waste crucial opportunities ... It can be even worse, a misleading of workers”. It added: “Misleadership is dangerous for the working class ... It is a sad day when the working class party is behind the capitalist press in saying what is happening.”

Although no one takes these sociopaths seriously, you would not think so from reading the latest Socialist News (issue 12, May/June 1998), whose entire back page is given over to EPSRites Roy Bull and Dave Roberts.

Socialist News

The 12th issue of this irregular paper is again an eclectic mishmash of personal stories, odd agendas, dull reports and liberal hand-wringing. Yet, for all its ‘variety’, Socialist News remains an appalling bore of a read. I personally enjoy reading the Morning Star more - and that’s saying something.

Roy Bull gets on his soap box, railing against any campaign for the legalisation of drugs as a “huge diversion” from the real task of overthrowing capitalism. This is despite, somewhat contradictorily, starting his argument by claiming: “Surely the reality is that capitalism does not ban drugs - if it did, why is the planet flooded with them?” What brilliance. Having seen him in action, I want some of whatever Roy’s on.

Pat Sikorski’s contribution on Ireland is of some interest. While dodging any direct criticism of Sinn Féin, he does speak of the British-Irish Agreement in the context of the imperialist resolution of ‘hot spots’ “in favour of its local allies ... while damping down the worldwide struggle against injustice”. Clearly an imperialist peace settlement.

But the SLP’s vice-president manages to face both ways, assuring us that the agreement

“opens up the possibility of fruitful struggle in the area of equality, human and civil rights, policing and justice, and provides legitimacy to participating in the assembly, as this is the route to participating in the all-Ireland bodies. Sinn Féin itself has not given up its programmatic demand for a 32-county democratic, socialist republic.”

It is certainly a remarkable deal that serves the interests of both imperialism and socialism.